Forecasters: Expect cold first week of April on Long Island

With March registering colder than normal — and let’s not even get into the record snowfall — just where does that leave April?

Long-range forecasters are saying to expect more of the same, at least temperature-wise, for the first week of the month.

Despite a brief, 50-degrees-and-up tease into this weekend, temperatures next week have a 70 to 80 percent chance of averaging colder than normal, the Climate Prediction Center says.

We’re not talking icy cold here — just more-of-the-same cold, with temperatures rising mostly to around the mid- to upper 40s, at least through midweek, and going down to the low to mid-30s.

The normal daily highs for that stretch at Long Island MacArthur Airport range from 52 to 55 degrees, with daily lows of 36 to 38 degrees.

March, as of day-end Wednesday, was coming in at close to 2 degrees below the monthly normal, according to National Weather Service data. On the heels of a record-warm February, the first day of March warmed up to 60 degrees, with 20 later days of below normal.

Monthly snowfall was a record-breaking 31.9 inches at the airport, with three out the month’s four nor’easters bringing snow.

There are a couple of chances for precipitation next week, but for now Long Islanders worried about more snow can relax. Through midweek, there appear to be no matches of precipitation with air cold enough to turn it to snow, said David Stark, a weather service meteorologist in Upton, as of Thursday afternoon.

What to thank or blame for this postponement of lighter-coat, early spring weather? A pattern similar to the one that set the stage for all those storms, Stark said, one allowing for the influx of colder air masses from Canada.

Still, once the pattern gives way, April’s temperatures do tend to “quickly trend up,” he said, with April 21 typically tipping normal daily highs into the 60s.